Not applicable.
The sport of golf has become an increasingly popular sport in the last few decades. This popularity has increased for many reasons, but perhaps two of the most important are the rise of a number of very charismatic internationally recognized stars, and the availability of extremely good television coverage of the many events. Much of the tension, and excitement, of any golf tournament, surrounds the act of putting, which in the final analysis, ordinarily determines the ultimate winner of any tournament. The importance of putting, in the game of golf, is readily understood when it is noted that for a standard 18 hole golf course having a par rating of 72, 36 of those strokes are allocated to putting, two strikes for each green, or putting surface. This truism is reflected, as well, in the timeless golfism xe2x80x9cdrive for show; putt for dough.xe2x80x9d
As a result of its obvious importance to successfully playing the game of golf, the art, or skill, of putting has been the subject of large numbers of instruction manuals, books, magazine articles, and, indeed, United States patents. A casual observation of professional and amateur golfers, in the acts of putting shows that putting style, including putter grip, player""s stance, putter club style, ball position, etc. is different, and, perhaps, unique, for each golfer. Physically, golfers vary greatly in height and weight, and also vary in the distance between the ground and the golfer""s hands, where the golfer is standing erect. Generally speaking, the act of putting does not require unusual strength, or extremely high velocity club swinging, as in the case of driving or iron play. Putting is, rather, an act of finesse and, hopefully, an act as free of physical stress and mental swing correction signals as possible.
Golf clubs available for purchase at most sports stores are readily available in varying degrees of shaft flex and club head shape. The length of the woods and irons of a set of golf clubs are usually approximately standard throughout the golf manufacturing industry, although such clubs may be special ordered with non-standard lengths. Most golfers, however, acquire a standard length set of clubs and modify their stance, grip, and other swing characteristics to optimize their swing action relative to those clubs. In the case of putters, conventional practice is to provide putters having an overall length of 35xe2x80x3, and a conventional lie angle between the shaft and the bottom surface of the putter approximating 70xc2x0. Rarely are putters shortened or lengthened, and my experience indicates that the casual beginner, or intermediate, golfer will adapt his putter swing to the length of the club rather than having a putter personally fitted to him, or her, without any reference to the standard length or lie.
It will be noted that the mere act of providing fitting clubs with adjustable shaft lengths and/or adjustable lie angles, has been long known in the golf business. For example, Johnston, U.S. Pat. No. 4,104,802; Rhodehamel, U.S. Pat. No. 3,208,150; Kelly U.S. Pat. No. 3,953,033; Thompson, U.S. Pat. No. 4,655,457; Korfanta, U.S. Pat. No. 4,885,847; and Denny U.S. Pat. No. 5,469,627. While these patents and other known club fitting methods and devices provide club fitting techniques that include club length adjustment and club lie adjustment, they do not properly establish the proper length and/or lie of a putter club that is optimum for a given individual player. For the most part, players are commonly asked what length of putter feels comfortable to them. Unfortunately, what is comfortable to an individual is what that individual has done in the past, which very often is not correct.
In accordance with the present invention, the ultimate length and lie of the putter club are established by first defining the best set-up position for each individual player. Once that correct set-up has been established, and a correct-length putter is fitted, the putter should also be manufactured with the correct, or optimum, swing weight, and overall club weight to maintain the proper balance of the putter club and provide proper player feel of the putter club throughout the player""s putting stroke. In accordance with the present invention, for each individual player, the correct, optimum, set-up position for executing a putting stroke, entails three vertical indicator lines. The first line extends from the ball directly vertical, where it should intersect the player""s eyes. The second is a vertical line through the shoulder sockets with the hands and arms directly thereunder, elbows slightly bent. The third line extends vertically through the hip sockets and the heels of the player. In the proper aligning condition, the players hips are positioned comfortably directly over the heels of the feet, the torso is tilted forwardly about the hip sockets until the arms hang freely straight downwardly from the shoulders and forward of the legs, permitting free swinging motion of the arms to the left and right of the torso, and with the player""s eyes directly above the golf ball. I recommend placing the hands on the club grip in the palms, rather than at the base of the fingers, thereby generally aligning the club shaft and the arms. This set-up properly positions the hands and club for an optimum, repeatable, natural, free swinging putting stroke motion.
The length of the putter club is then determined for that individual player by measuring the distance from the heel of the palm, at the natural wrist crease, of the left hand (in the case of right handed golfer) and the ground directly below the hands, and the distance from the point on the ground directly below the noted hand crease to the inside edge of the golf ball (i.e., the edge facing the golfer). The Pythagorean Theorem thereupon establishes the proper length of the putter shaft, and trigonometric rules establish the correct lie angle for the putter head, and swing weight of the club can be chosen. As is well known in the art, when a club is shortened from it""s initially manufactured condition, if nothing else is changed, the swing weight, or feel of the club decreases. Accordingly, a standard 35xe2x80x3 putter that has been shortened by several inches, will feel considerably lighter during the swing. In accordance with my preferred fitting method, the swing weight of about D-0 is chosen and the weight of the putter club head and/or the weight of the grip is preferably adjusted to provide that optimum swing weight.